East to West: 13-Day Grand Tour of Bhutan

Most visitors see western Bhutan. This journey keeps going: across the black mountains, through the temples of Bumthang and over the eastern passes to Trashigang, where visitors are still a novelty and farmhouse hospitality is the real thing.

The first week covers the classics properly, with the Tiger’s Nest hike, Thimphu, Punakha Dzong and the crane valley of Phobjikha each given room to breathe. Then the road turns east through Bhutan’s national parks, old-growth forest that shelters red pandas, and drops into Mongar and the steep, terraced hills of the far east.

In the east you sit with weavers working backstrap looms on their porches, sleep near Trashigang’s hilltop dzong and eat in farmhouses rather than restaurants. For the return you can fly west from Yonphula or exit south through Samdrup Jongkhar into India; we plan it around your onward travel.